American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten testified before Congress on Wednesday to defend her union's role in influencing public policy on school lockdowns. Weingarten told lawmakers, "We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools. "

A review of Weingarten's comments in 2020, however, shows she was not the school reopening champion she now portrays herself as.

Weingarten called then-president Donald Trump's push to reopen schools "reckless," "callous," and "cruel." She also said "there's no way that you’re going to have full-time schools for all the kids and all the teachers the way we used to have it."